Vehicle accidents are a major worldwide problem. A large proportion of vehicle accidents are related to drivers not being aware of the consequences of vehicle behaviour. Several of these accidents are caused by a driver of a vehicle driving too fast under prevailing road conditions. Other accidents are caused by a driver not keeping enough distance to a vehicle in front to be able to brake and avoid an accident in case the vehicle in front decelerates rapidly. Also, many accidents are related to threats in front of the vehicle, such as pedestrians, animals, other vehicles, sharp curves, intersections, etc. Many of the accidents could be avoided if drivers had better understanding of vehicle behaviour and its consequences. Efforts have been made to provide information about the road conditions to a driver. In some systems, a single warning signal is presented e.g. in the form of a flashing symbol displayed in the instrument panel indicating that a traction control system is detecting that the vehicles tires are slipping. These systems do not fully help the driver to understand a critical situation and fail to warn the driver of an upcoming critical situation.
The document US 20100253539 A1 discloses a system utilizing vehicle-to-vehicle information for informing a driver of a vehicle about road condition. According to the document, when a vehicle approaches a particular stretch of road that has caused wheel slip for other vehicles, the system warns a driver of a vehicle equipped with such system about the road conditions. Thus, such system requires that a large number of vehicles driving in a particular area are equipped with such system if the system is to function as intended. Also, the system shown in the document does not provide crucial information to the driver about the vehicle behaviour.
The document WO 2011067170 A1 discloses a navigation device wherein a minimum appropriate distance to a vehicle ahead is displayed to a driver. When determining the minimum appropriate distance, information concerning the road condition may be taken into account. The navigation device shown in the document does not provide crucial information to the driver about vehicle behaviour.
Vehicles of today are getting more and more advanced. A driver of such vehicle is generally presented with more and more information. Thus, care must be taken not to overload a driver with information which could endanger the safety of driving. Hence, it has become crucial from a safety perspective to provide alerting systems which provide processed information, which can be intuitively perceived by the driver. Further, it is of great interest that the information provided may guide the driver to avoid a critical situation and how a certain driving behaviour affects the outcome in a driving situation.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method that provides information to the driver about an upcoming critical situation.